From German Democratic Republic Patent DD-PS 120 833, longitudinally displaceable metering tongues or strips are known. The strips have the width of an ink zone and can be pressed continuously against the ink roller. Viewed in the axial direction of the ink roller supporting and metering zones are thereby provided. The ink metering is effected by means of wedge-shaped recesses in the tongues.
From German Examined Patent Application DE-AS No. 26 48 098, an ink metering device of the general type described above is known, in which each metering element for inking zones has supporting and metering zones located beside one another, viewed in the axial direction of the ink trough roller. Each metering element is pressed continuously by spring pressure, with its supporting zones against the ink trough roller. The metering zones, each located between two supporting zones, extend in wedge-like fashion in depth, so that by rotating the supporting elements about their axis of rotation parallel to the ink roller, coats of ink of different thicknesses away be produced on the ink roller. One disadvantage of this system is that the manufacture of such metering elements is expensive; another is that the continuous contact of the supporting zones with the ink roller leaves relatively wide areas that cannot be inked, which in turn makes it more difficult to distribute or attain a uniform coating of ink to be transferred from the roller. In the system known from German Democratic Republic Patent DD-PS No. 120 833, the ink transfer is accomplished by means of regulating the width, and in the system of German Examined Patent Application DE-AS No. 26 48 098, the same principle is used in regulating the thickness of the ink coatings to be transferred.